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Silhouette Boot Camp: 20+ Mini-Lessons on How to Use Your Silhouette CAMEO

If you are new to owning a Silhouette CAMEO or just want to learn more about how to use the Silhouette Studio software to create your own unique designs and projects, then this series is for YOU! Silhouette Boot Camp will share a short tutorial each week on a design function for your Silhouette to help you understand exactly how to use the software to it’s fullest, and enable you to create anything you can dream up with your machine!

I am so excited to finally announce Silhouette Boot Camp! In our Silhouette Inspiration Facebook group there are endless questions and pleas for help on getting started with Silhouette Studio, and understanding exactly how to use all of the powerful design functions that the software gives you. When I put out a call to the community asking, “What do you not understand about your Silhouette?” I got hundreds of responses with questions of all types on how to use the machine.

I got to work that very night putting together this series that will take you from the most beginner questions, to pretty advanced functions of the software so that you can really understand how to use it and design anything your creative mind can dream up! This has been an absolute labor of love to put together, but here is what you can expect from the lessons:

Each lesson is a “mini-tutorial.” This isn’t a huge book, but just a weekly mini lesson on a new feature each week. It should be quick to read, easy to understand, and help you master the software in little bites each week.

Each lesson will have a video. There are some things that would take me 1000 words to explain, or just 5 seconds to show you! I know many of you are like me and are visual learners, so you will find a video in each lesson explaining the concept we are discussing that day.

Each lesson will have a text explanation. I love video, and often it helps me get through roadblocks I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do, but sometimes life just isn’t optimal for a video, so each post will also have text to further explore and explain the topic. That way if you need to scan or quick reference anything, it is all right there in multiple formats.

Each lesson has a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I have three small kids, so making these lessons, especially the videos, is a feat in itself! If these are helpful to you, make sure and pin the post or share it on Facebook, to help me spread the word about my site. Also, comments are always encouraging and very appreciated!

So what do you need to do to follow along? It is simple really! I plan to post a new lesson here on The Pinning Mama each Monday. You can check back here, or sign up for my Craft Email list, and you will get a notification right in your inbox anytime I post a new lesson or Silhouette freebie! Also, as I mentioned above, pinning the posts not only helps me, but it also gives you a great spot to bookmark this series so that you can check back whenever you are ready to learn! This post is the table of contents of sorts, as I will list below all of the planned lessons for the series and then update them with links as they become available- so bookmark this page!

Silhouette Bootcamp – 20+ Lessons on How to Use Your Silhouette CAMEO!

Here is what you can expect to see in the series. Posts that have been published will be linked below. If a post is not linked, then it has not been published yet. Check back, or sign up for my email list, as a new lesson will come out each week! Also, even though I say Silhouette CAMEO below, almost all of these tutorials are applicable to Silhouette Portrait, Curio, and Mint as well since they all run off of the same Silhouette Studio software.

Remember, these are just mini, bite-sized lessons each week so that you can continue to learn and sharpen your skills with your Silhouette each week. This schedule is not binding, and may change and flux some, but I wanted you to be able to see the things that I have planned so far! Again, don’t forget to pin this, and make sure to sign up for the emails so that you don’t miss a lesson! I’ll see you next week for Lesson 1!

55 Comments

I’ve had my Cameo for about a year. I struggled to learn the basics at first, but now I need to learn more. I use it in my business, so anything that I can do with it helps me financially. I know it is capable of doing much more. Thank you so much for making these tutorials. I will be catching up as quickly as I can. The help that you provide is easy to understand and worth a million! I have not found any other place that covers every little thing so well. Again, thank you for taking your time to help! I also appreciate how difficult it is to work with little ones running around you. I do it too!

Brand spanking new user here. I set up my machine, I was able to type a word and get it to cut, I was able to select a simple design from my library that I purchased from the silhouette store and get that to cut. What I am struggling to do it so select a created design that I purchased from the store and edit it. For example it says ” The Smith Family” I want to delete Smith and add Frahm. I have serached the internet on how to do it and I am overwhelmed by what is out there. I have watched several videos and read several different posts etc with zero luck as it is so overwhelming. I came across your tutorials and I like the way you do things. Do you have instructions on how to do what I’m asking, without spending 5 hours (as I have today) trying to search watch/read and learn….. thank you

I finally bought a Silhouette Cameo 3. I had the original Silhouette and loved it but recently, it quit working. I never updated to V4. I can’t figure out to to close a file(in my new Silhouette) from the Design mat. With the old Silhouette, I would go to File, then close file and it would ask if I wanted to save the changes. I would click Save and it would close. Now when I try that, the file doesn’t close. It keeps coming back asking if I want to save changes. What do I do to close my design? I just today, found your blog and watched some videos. I want to start at the beginning and watch all of them but don’t see that problem addressed.